On Baseball: Little freedom of choice

The ire over Major League Baseball's All-Star Game rosters, as predictable a rite of summer as Fourth of July fireworks and second-degree sunburns, has arrived again. This time most of it is centered around two players: Tim Wakefield, Boston's 42-year-old knuckleballer making his first career All-Star appearance despite a 4.30 ERA, and Ryan Howard, the Phillies first baseman picked for his second All-Star Game - by his manager, Charlie Manuel - despite putting up the same kind of high-homer, low-average seasons that failed to get him into the past two Midsummer Classics. There's always a fair amount of weeping and ... Email </a